NEW ORLEANS – The public is invited to scoping meetings June 14 in Belle Chasse and June 16 in Larose concerning the Louisiana Coastal Area (LCA) Caminada Headland and Shell Island Feasibility Study (LCA CSI) and the associated draft environmental impact statement (DEIS).

Members of the public are asked to attend and comment on the LCA CSI and the DEIS. The shoreline restoration would be implemented in Lafourche, Plaquemines and Jefferson parishes. This project is one of 15-near-term features of the LCA Ecosystem Restoration Plan that will address critical near-term restoration needs across the Louisiana coast.

Schedule of meetings

Tuesday, June 14 – Belle Chasse Auditorium, 8398 Highway 23, Belle Chasse
Thursday, June 16 – Larose Civic Center, 307 East 5th Street, Larose

The scoping meetings will begin with an open house at 6:00 pm followed by a study overview and comment period at 6:30 pm.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will prepare the draft EIS in cooperation with its local sponsor, the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources.

Questions for discussion

1. What are the critical natural and human environmental problems and needs that should be addressed in the DEIS? For example, critical natural and human ecological needs may include: barrier shoreline sustainability, navigation, barrier shoreline habitat restoration, hurricane and flood protection, protection of human infrastructure, and others.
2. What are the significant resources that should be considered in the DEIS? For example, significant resources may include: barrier shorelines, offshore sand resources, water quality, threatened and endangered species and others.
3. What are the reasonable restoration alternatives that should be considered in the DEIS? For example, consider alternative borrow sites from inland reaches of the Mississippi River and outside the system, rock the entire shoreline, use hardened structures such as break waters, re-establish the barrier shoreline further inland, emphasize marsh creation as major component of barrier shoreline restoration, and others.

Choose how to make scoping comments

• Deliver orally or in writing at the scoping meetings.
• Send via the Web site www.lca.gov.
• E-mail to LCACSI@mvn02.usace.army.mil.
• Write letter to Dr. William P. Klein Jr., CEMVN-PM-RS, P.O. Box 60267, New Orleans, La., 70160-0267. Should be postmarked by June 27, the close of the scoping comment period.

Faxed comments will not be accepted.